650 per month. i dont aknowledge the belt, i get taped every time i go to BJJ by the other white belts now...I'm a white belt

Was that for the black belt program? Twice a week for 3 years comes out to almost $100 per class! If you wouldn't mind telling us I more I would love to hear some personal stories about your experiences there.

I also think it would benefit anyone who is thinking of paying that kind of money to train there.

Was that for the black belt program? Twice a week for 3 years comes out to almost $100 per class! If you wouldn't mind telling us I more I would love to hear some personal stories about your experiences there.

I also think it would benefit anyone who is thinking of paying that kind of money to train there.

OK, I'll try to be objective.

His school is in a strip mall on the outskirt of vegas. Its actually called a wellness center. When you first go in there is a pretty girl who greets you, she works there for free to pay for her sons lessons. The place is clean, private dressing room with shower, a nice feel to the place.

You fill out the paperwork, its a long app, asks about your history in the martial arts, why you want to do jiu jitsu, income, name, address, general contact info. You then pay 150 up front, non refundable, for an intro lesson. They make it clear that the money is non refundable, but hey. your getting the "highest ranking black belt in GJJ in the US to teach you private lessons, besides if you have ever seen the UFC you know this stuff works. Rodrigo Gracie, the Pride fighter, is grandmaster Reylson Gracies son, so we are proven in the ring"

You get a Gi, it has Reylson Gracie emproidered on it, and a hat, and a T shirt. You get to keep that stuff, even if you don't come back. The Gi is one of those $7.00 cheap karate ones, cheaper than the ones I sold my karate students when I had a gym.

You then get your first lesson, but suprise, the Grand Master is to buisy today, its with a young blackbelt. I remember that being new to GJJ I didn't know why the red panel, I was told, "because this is a masters belt." by the young instructor.

I didn't know jack, so back then, to me, the lesson was great. UPA from double hand choke, from one hand on throat with the other getting ready to hit you, escape from standing guillatine (the one where you brace his knee with both hands, fall onto your back, and roll him over you) and a modified hip tos first taught walking with your arm around the instructor walking, then from being held at arms length from an opponent, back against the wall.. Note: no other lesson contained this much instruction. Lesson five or six is just shrimping, done under observation for about 30 minutes.

When your done reylson comes in and watches you perform the moves. You then go shower and change while the Grand Master prepares to meet with you.

On my app I had listed that I own a Isshinryu Dojo and taught Isshinryu and Hindiandi. Reylson ask if I wanted to do the black belt program so I could teach his families jiu jitsu at my school. I said yeah, maybe when I know a little more, sure, what is the cost? He said ohh we will work on it, most pay 20,000 a year for the first five years and then nothing ever again. I said tahts a lot of money, he said he would take payments and to think about it, he said it would pay for itself in new student enrollment and that the price included him comeing out once a year, but seeing as how i was only four hours away maybe twice a year, in fact, according to reylson, the influx of new students should even pay for my trips there.

He then showed me pictures of the Gracie mansion, hyped the black belt program and had the secretary sign me up for lessons.

I went two days a week for about two months, each time for an hour. I decided to do the black belt program, it worked like this:

you just pay your normal dues untill you open a GJJ program at your school. You then sign the contract, get the first seminar schedualed, and set a date for an inspection of ypur school.

At about the two month mark he really started pushing the black belt/aaffiliate program hard. I talked to him, told him I just didn't have the money. ( I am 100% service connected disabled, traumatic brain injury and PTSD) but my wife did ok, and my family had money, but I just didn't know.

We finally agreed that while in the program I would only have to pay the 650 a month untill I had money coming in from my students, or untill I signed the contract. But I had to train more.

So I started going in for one hour on tuesdays and for six hours on thursdays. On thursdays I spent four hours watching them teach and just hanging out, then my lesson, then a one hour lesson on how to teach.

The teaching lessons were really good, and taught me to be a good uke, and keep safe when thrown or taken down. Probably not as good as it was expensive, but byt now I had drunk the koolaid.

I will say this, the man is crazy. He did several things that pushed me to far.
1. He tried to get me to buy a mercades, as previously mentioned.
2, He took the salt away from my dad, in front of my family and a bunch of reporters, and said your over wieght, you dont need this.
3. He insisted that my son was the reincarnation of Carlos Gracie. Thats what broke the camels back, it was just to wierd. I even spoke with other students about it and he said "thats just the way the grand master is"
4. He tried to pass his other son, ceaser off as THE ceaser gracie.
5. He called me about 5 times a day trying to get me to "find me a nice, sexy, poor girl to take out" it was just getting to wierd,.
6. He was getting angry, wanting me to sign the contract. I couldn't do it, it was just to much money.

I should have known, and maybe I did deep inside. I just felt off about it all. I finally went over to cobra kai, and learned that I didnt know anything, this led to a pretty big fight.

It ended with him being very agressive to my wife on the phone, because I refused to speak to him for about two weeks. I finally got on the phone and he said "If you mess with me there will be a whole bunch of us at your door, I have over 120 relatives who are all fighters. To wich I said that if a gracie came to my house i would just figure they came there to fight, i explained my disability to him and told him that i would not be able to win at a fight with one of them, let alone a lot of them, so if one ever came to my door I would shoot him and assume it was self defense. I never heard from him again.

On a side note, you want to know how well I knew the man, here is a story. When his son Rodrigo was a little boy he got jumped by a gang, they beat him up and stole his pants. He went home crying, but his dad consoled him saying there were many of them and only one of him. I don't know...but I believe its true, reylson told me the story and at the time we got along. He and Rodrigo had a little falling out because when Rodrigo went to Renzo he took off his black belt and donned a brown belt, this really hurt reylson. They are good now, or were when I went there, but it still bothered him.

I even signed a friend up. He had a beard, reylson wouldn't teach him till he shaved, lol, and he did it. all of us had to be clean shaved and your shirt tucked in, it was like the military.

I used to be a traditionalist, well exept for some amerature boxing, very little of that thogh. You guys know how it is, dont question, do as your told, yada yada.

T: How is the relationship with your family? What do you think of the accusations that Reyson made against you?

CG: Reylson is mentally retarded, crazy, and should be in a mental hospital. I have no answers for a famigerado (asshole, troublemaker). About the rest of the family, everything is fine right now. Even though there's little things that I don't agree with. But in the ring, I don't care. My Jiu-Jitsu is completely different from theirs, my technique has nothing to do with "Gracie Jiu-Jitsu." I AM CARLSON GRACIE and that's the way it is in the ring. Who ever shows up on the way in, is going to have to fight against my fighters.

My teacher is a brown belt, but awesome, we roll every class. I would put any of his blue belts against any of Reylsons black belts, and the blue would probably win.

I'd take this bet.

I've been a blue belt for 3 years. I'm likely far inferior to the blue belts in your class, but I've rolled with Rodrigo a couple of times. He knows his ****. He's been training with Renzo and Royce for the past 15 years, and I've seen him completely tool legitimate blackbelts.

This in no way invalidates your experience or makes any part of it acceptable...you just happen to be wrong on this point.

I've been a blue belt for 3 years. I'm likely far inferior to the blue belts in your class, but I've rolled with Rodrigo a couple of times. He knows his ****. He's been training with Renzo and Royce for the past 15 years, and I've seen him completely tool legitimate blackbelts.

This in no way invalidates your experience or makes any part of it acceptable...you just happen to be wrong on this point.

True...I should not have made that statement, it was to blanket and not accurate i'm sure.